Photo of Wyche Attorney Matthew T. Richardson

Matthew T. Richardson, Member

Matthew’s practice focuses on civil litigation, and he has participated in cases involving consumer protection, voting rights and election protests, commercial and real estate law, copyright infringement, insurance bad faith, employment law, medical malpractice, personal injury, and products liability. His experience includes jury trials, bench trials, preliminary motions and injunctions, dispositive motions, class action certification determinations, mediations, arbitrations, and appeals.

Representative Matters

Matthew has appeared in federal and state courts in South Carolina regularly since joining the Bar, as:

  • lead counsel in consumer protection litigation with statewide and policy-level implications;
  • counsel in a medical malpractice case with catastrophic and permanent injuries;
  • appellate counsel for the League of Women Voters and the South Carolina State Chapter of the NAACP in the landmark equitable school funding case;
  • counsel for the lead plaintiff in a federal three-judge panel voting rights case that went through trial resulting in affirmative relief and an agreed-on fee award for the client;
  • counsel in a minority shareholder suit litigated as an adversary proceeding in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of South Carolina;
  • counsel in numerous copyright infringement cases in various federal courts;
  • counsel in major federal securities litigation that ultimately reached a settlement after jury selection; and,
  • lead counsel in a federal employment discrimination case.

Matthew has also been lead counsel in a products liability class action removed to federal court that was transferred by the Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation to the District of South Carolina for pre-trial litigation. Recently, he was lead counsel in another voting rights case in the District of South Carolina that resulted in the client receiving an affirmative injunction against the State and an agreed-on payment of attorneys' fees and costs. Matthew currently serves as lead counsel in a voting rights case challenging the state's election system and as local counsel for supplementary proceedings in the U.S. District Court for collection of a judgment on behalf of the victims of a terrorist act in which competing claims are being made for the funds that have been frozen in the District of South Carolina.

Professional Background

2001-Present Wyche Burgess Freeman & Parham, P.A.
2000–2001 Law Clerk to the Honorable Patrick Michael Duffy, United States District Court, District of South Carolina
1998–1999 Law Clerk to the Honorable Kaye G. Hearn, South Carolina Court of Appeals

Educational Background

1998, J.D. The University of South Carolina School of Law; South Carolina Law Review (Editor in Chief, 1997–98); Order of the Wig and Robe
1995, A.B. Duke University, Economics

Professional Activities and Memberships

  • Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference, Permanent Member
  • Federal Bar Association, President of the South Carolina Chapter 2004–05
  • South Carolina Association for Justice, Board of Governors, Officer since 2007
  • American Association for Justice
  • Taxpayers Against Fraud
  • American Bar Association
  • South Carolina Bar Association
  • Richland County Bar Association, Bench-Bar Liaison Committee 2007–09

Bar and Court Admissions

  • South Carolina
  • District of South Carolina
  • Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals
  • United States Supreme Court

Representative Community Activities

  • Democratic Nominee for Attorney General of South Carolina 2010
  • South Carolina State University, Board of Trustees, Executive Committee
  • South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center, Board of Directors, Treasurer 2006–07
  • South Carolina Future Minds Foundation, Board of Directors
  • Democratic National Committee, Elected Member
  • South Carolina Democratic Party, Executive Committee, Executive Council, Parliamentarian 2009 State Convention
  • Central Carolina Community Foundation, Advisory Committee

Publications and Presentations

  • Co-Author, “Insurance Bad Faith,” 2 South Carolina Damages 11 (S.C. Bar 2004)
  • Co-Author, “Secret Settlements: Reports of Their Demise Are Premature,” 15 S.C. Law. 29 (May 2004)
  • Co-Author, “The Tort of Unauthorized Pelvic Exams,” Trial (October 2004)
  • Author, “2005 Legislative Changes to the South Carolina Civil Justice System,” SCTLA Bulletin (Summer 2005)
  • Presentation, “All Aboard, The Train is Leaving: Electronic Case Filing is Mandatory in the District of South Carolina,” SCTLA Convention (August 5, 2005)
  • Moderator, Fourth Annual Federal Practice in the District of South Carolina (September 9, 2005)
  • Presentation, “What it Means to be a Trial Lawyer,” SCTLA Student Chapter, USC School of Law (October 27, 2005)
  • Presentation, “2005 Legislative Changes to Joint and Several Liability in South Carolina,” Judges Meeting, U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina (May 12, 2006)
  • Presentation, “Overview of the Federal Legal System,” FBA Summer Clerks Program (2006, 2007 and 2008)
  • Presentation, “Is ‘Joint and Several’ Becoming ‘Blame Everybody’?” SCTLA Convention (August 3, 2006)
  • Presentation, “No-Injury Class Actions: Frontier or Futile?” RPWB Co-Counsel Seminar (April 27, 2007) and SCTLA Convention (August 3, 2007)
  • Presentation, “No-Injury Class Actions are Coming to South Carolina,” S.C. State Circuit Judges Conference (May 17, 2007)
  • Presentation, “Statutory Changes to Joint and Several Liability,” SCTLA Convention (August 3, 2007)
  • Presentation, “Election Protection Strategies,” NAACP Faith Community Summit (October 23, 2008)
  • Moderator, “Exploring Bans on Illegal Immigrant Admission to State Colleges & Universities,” Symposium: State Constitutional Reform in the New South (Charleston School of Law, January 16, 2009)
  • Co-Moderator, “Should the South Carolina Constitution Support a Stronger Executive?,” Symposium: State Constitutional Reform in the New South (Charleston School of Law, January 16, 2009)
  • Co-Author, “Insurance Bad Faith,” South Carolina Damages (S.C. Bar 2d ed. 2009)
  • Panel Discussion with Federal Judges, “Candor Towards the Tribunal,” Federal Bar Association 2009 Ethics CLE and Annual Meeting (Greenville, SC, September 17, 2009)
  • Presentation, “Discovery Issues and Techniques from the Plaintiff's Perspective,” SC Bar CLE Seminar, Discovery: Problems & Solutions (Columbia, SC, May 14, 2010)

Awards and Honors

  • Liberty Fellowship, Aspen Global Leadership Network
  • Top 20 Under 40, The State, January 25, 2010
  • Compleat Lawyer Award, University of South Carolina School of Law, 2003
  • Eagle Scout